Department of Health and Social Care

Palliative Care: Children and Young People

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the prospects of equitable access to hospice care for all children and young people who need palliative and end of life care in 2024.

Lord Markham: The Government recognises that access to high-quality, palliative and end of life care can make all the difference to individuals and their loved ones. Funding for children’s and young people’s palliative and end of life care is made available locally through integrated care boards (ICBs), which are responsible for commissioning services in response to the needs of their local population.In addition, NHS England has confirmed that it will be renewing the Children and Young People’s hospice grant for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million grant funding for children’s hospices. NHS England is reprioritising budgets for 2024/25, in light of the revised assessment of financial position and, whilst it is holding funding aside for the children and young people’s hospice sector, it cannot confirm further details, including the distribution mechanism, until 2024/25 financial planning is concluded.Children and young people’s palliative and end of life care is provided by a range of services and providers from across the statutory and voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors. The majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, but we recognise that the voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play a very vital part in providing support to people at end of life and their loved ones.The Government has not made a direct assessment of the prospects of equitable access to hospice care for all children and young people who need palliative and end of life care in 2024. However, NHS England’s palliative and end of life care team has recently engaged with 24 ICBs to understand how to better support commissioners and has also reviewed all 42 ICB Joint Forward Plans for their inclusion of palliative and end of life care, with 69% making a specific mention. Further analysis is ongoing, but the intention is to use this to help shape and focus support to ICBs.

Hospices: Children and Young People

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they expect integrated care boards to be able to identify how many children and young people access children’s hospices; and what steps they will take if they cannot.

Lord Markham: Children and young people’s palliative and end of life care is provided by a range of local services and providers from across the statutory and voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors, including hospices, with the experience and skills to meet those needs.While there is no explicit requirement for integrated care boards (ICBs) to identify how many children and young people specifically access children's hospices, commissioning of children and young people’s palliative and end of life care services is the statutory duty of ICBs, which must commission these services in response to the needs of their population,In July 2022, NHS England published statutory guidance for commissioners on palliative and end of life care, setting out the considerations for ICBs to meet their legal duties and makes clear reference to the importance of access to services. A copy of the guidance is attached.NHS England has also published a service specification for children and young people which provide guidance on undertaking assessments to enable high-quality commissioning of services that meet both population need and preferences. A copy of the specification is attached.Attachment (pdf, 500.2KB)Attachment (pdf, 372.0KB)

Dementia: Diagnosis

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to invest in diagnostic innovations and expand access to improve dementia diagnoses across NHS England.

Lord Markham: Timely diagnosis of dementia is vital to ensure that a person with dementia can access the advice, information, care and support that can help them to live well with the condition and remain independent for as long as possible.In 2021/22, the Government allocated £17 million to the National Health Service to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. In accordance with the Government’s commitments, we will also double funding for dementia research to £160 million per year by 2024/25. This will span all areas of research, including diagnosis.NHS England continues to monitor the monthly dementia diagnosis rate and analyse trends at national, regional and integrated care board level, and is committed to recovering diagnosis rates to the national ambition.They have a proactive national dementia programme in place, which includes monitoring international trial data, funding diagnosis improvement projects and informing ongoing research into the identification and management of dementia.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Climate Change

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will commit to working with institutions such asuniversities to develop policies to combat climate change and stimulate green growth.

Lord Callanan: The Government funds research to provide evidence to support the development of energy, climate change, and green growth policies. This research is competitively tendered and is delivered typically by academic institutions, consultancies, SMEs, or a combination.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Guyana: Venezuela

Lord Weir of Ballyholme: To ask His Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the current threat to the territorial integrity of Guyana posed by Venezuela.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: We are concerned by the recent steps taken by Venezuela. The UK's position is clear: the border was settled in 1899 through international arbitration. The Foreign Secretary has reassured President Ali of this. The UK continues to engage with regional partners and international bodies to de-escalate tensions.Minister Rutley visited Guyana on 18 December. HMS Trent also visited on 29/30 December as a further signal of support for Guyana's sovereign borders.The UK welcomes the Argyle Declaration signed by Venezuela and Guyana in St Vincent and the Grenadines on 14 December, which makes clear that Venezuela is to refrain from the use of force and any further escalation.